Ellert is fascinated by the inventiveness with which people get by when little is available. For years he has been recording, with his camera, their temporary shelters, makeshift repairs and mysterious objects adapted to specific needs. This often takes place during his travels to distant places, but it may also simply occur as he walks around his own neighborhood.

Elaborating on visual elements suggested by the photographs themselves, Ellert subjects them to a number of treatments. By folding the photographs, placing them in water or covering them with small plates of glass, he turns them into three-dimensional objects which he then photographs once again. The result is a two-dimensional image which resists careless observation due to its inconsistencies.

They frequently have a certain fragile and vulnerable quality, but beneath that lies, just as with his sources of inspiration, an unexpected toughness.

'Keen observation' and 'reckless thinking': these are key concepts in Ellert's art. In his sculptures, too, he follows the path down which he is led by a careless/creative use of everyday objects. Part of this involves using discarded materials and having a preference for forms that suggest a vague function. The surface of his sculptures bears the marks of use and reuse; it brings attention to their subtle materiality.

In his work Ellert investigates a vigorous language of forms whose origins lie not in aesthetics, but in the urge to survive, from which it derives its beauty.